Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø

The Paris language was a huge win as the first legally binding climate agreement that includes CCHR. But now the focus is on implementation and how to take Paris forward most effectively to ensure it actually leads to concrete human rights improvements. Paris makes all our conversations easier now because we have this important reference point we can use in our advocacy. So Paris really was a watershed moment for CCHR.

What are the most important next steps on CCHR after COP22 in Marrakech?

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) continues to be a crucial venue to continue to push CCHR. The HRC programme of work for 2017 will focus on child rights and climate change, while the UN Special Rapporteur John Knox is preparing a report for publication in 2018 on child rights and the environment, both of which are of course particularly important for UNICEF. Finally, we have set up a technical working group on child rights and climate change which will seek to feed into all of these processes, including the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child following their Day of General Discussion on the environment in September 2016.

What have been the key challenges to put CCHR on the UNFCCC negotiation agenda?

One of the key challenges is that experts and NGOs on the environment and human rights work in two different silos and the groups are still very separate. There is still some resistance to breaking down the wall between UNHRC and UNFCCC. This highlights the continued importance of NGO work on HRCC and, particularly, the importance of the work with countries who champion both issues, such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Belgium (which is also pushing at EU-level on the issue) and a number of Latin American countries, who have taken a lead in e.g. the Geneva Pledge.

What was the NGO strategy on CCHR going into Paris, what do you think were the key factors for success?

The NGO strategy was to push very hard to have CCHR in the operative part of the agreement. While we were ultimately unsuccessful, we did secure very strong language in the preamble, and perhaps this would not have been possible if we had not pushed so hard for an ambitious outcome in the operative text. We worked closely with a number of pro-CCHR states as mentioned. The states were actually encouraging the CSOs to make more noise on the issue to ensure there was political pressure. Overall the most important initiative for the NGOs was putting together a super-coalition of NGOs, bringing rights groups from different issues together. It's not easy to maintain a diverse coalition, particularly when each organisation feels pressure to secure their specific interest, which may be harder to achieve by taking on the broader interests of a larger group. States would have welcomed this disunity because it could have watered the CCHR language down. So keeping the coalition together was crucial, and CCHRWG was instrumental in steering this work. There was tension and risk of breaking apart, but ultimately the strength of the joint coalition and joint strategy was key. Now an important question is how do we keep that unity going forward?

What is your view on the discussions on CCHR at COP22 in Marrakech, are you optimistic that the Paris agreement will be implemented effectively with regards to CCHR?

Marrakech showed that there is continued momentum on CCHR, although this is quite low profile. The rule-book for implementation of the Agreement is still being developed, but we did manage to secure reference to human rights in one of the first decisions taken, on capacity building. Now we need to make sure HR make it into the work programme. Political support from states on CCHR remains crucial to ensure we can turn Paris into concrete action. The upcoming work on child rights in other fora is a good hook to maintain momentum. But it remains challenging to secure something concrete, there is still a lack of clarity on what the rulebook will look like and how effective states' work on their NDCs will be. So the picture is mixed, it is almost too early to tell how implementation will go. But given the continued momentum we can be cautiously optimistic.

This interview was conducted by Matthias Mueller in December 2016. It is referenced as 'Pegram interview' in "Climate Change and Human Rights: Agenda-Setting Against the Odds" (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø Global Governance Institute Working Paper Series, 2017/1).